1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of assembling pallets and in particular assembling subcomponents of pallets.
2. Related Art
In warehousing, two types of pallets have traditionally been used. All of them included a “mat” which is a series of boards or slats that are on a top level upon which product is placed. Below the mat are vertical supports. Below the vertical supports are generally several slats to be placed on the warehouse floor. The vertical separators maintain a space into which fork lift forks may be inserted for lifting and moving the pallets. One type of vertical spacer is a vertical board with a slots or grooves cut into it for receiving the forks. Block pallets maintain the vertical space with spaced blocks.
Warehousemen have come to prefer block pallets. Slotted pallets require a more exact alignment of the fork truck with the pallet, which can become problematic in constricted spaces such as the corners of warehouses. Accordingly, block pallets have become preferred since the forks of fork trucks may enter the pallet from a wider range of insertion angles.
Pallet assemblers offer pallets to customer warehousemen in a variety of dimensions and configurations. In order to achieve economic efficiencies, pallet assemblers prefer to retain inventories of pallet assembly components, which are only assembled upon receiving an order for them. A preferred component is a single floor slat with blocks already attached to it. These individual slats (or “stringers”) may be assembled with mats in multiple arrangements. The slat and block assemblies may further be assembled in a variety of dimensions. Several dimensions have become standard, including 36 inch, 48 inch and 60 inch long versions. The blocks of these block/slats assemblies are also spaced in standardized fashions. On occasion, block spacing may be varied.
Traditionally, pallets and the slat/block components used to make them have been assembled manually. Some automated devices have been developed to facilitate the assembly of pallets. These devices include relatively inexpensive devices that perform only small sub portions of pallet assembly and also include large scale pallet assembly devices that are capable of automatically producing several hundred pallets per hour.
There are many disadvantages associated with various types of prior art automated pallet assembly devices. One obvious such disadvantage is the cost of such assembly devices, which can make large automated assembly devices uneconomical for production facilities that do not have the demand for operating such devices continually. Other less complex and less expensive assembly devices require slats, stringers, blocks, or other pallet components to be manually positioned in their relative assembled positions or within jigs or carriages. Such manual positioning tends to increase labor costs and/or slow production rates. At least some relatively small scale assembly devices, such as the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,403,388, automatically position at least some pallet components in their assembled position prior to assembling such components.
There is a need in the art for more rapid, economical production. There is a need in the art for automation of slats and block assembly. There is further a need for an automated system that can accommodate varying dimensions and occasional customized dimensions of block slat components. There is a continuing need for improving economy, volume and speed of production.